Effect of humidity on active lateral Earth pressure of unsaturated sand behind rigid retaining wall

Mamaghanian, Jaber; Razeghi, Hamid Reza; Gourgani, Majid

doi:10.22075/jme.2026.36209.2784

Effect of humidity on active lateral Earth pressure of unsaturated sand behind rigid retaining wall

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Jaber Mamaghanian ¹

Hamid Reza Razeghi ²

Majid Gourgani ³

¹ School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

² School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and

³ School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology

10.22075/jme.2026.36209.2784

Abstract

In this research, the lateral earth pressure of standard Firuzkuh sand on a rigid retaining wall by using fourteen physical models built in the Geotechnical Research Center of Iran University of Science and Technology, in the active state of the soil for dry and unsaturated sand conditions, has been investigated. The PIV method was used to measure the deformations of the soil and the results of the deformations were verified with the data was obtained by pressure gauges installed on the retaining wall. The results show the impressive effect of internal sand suction on the lateral pressure of the embankment. It has been shown that the rupture wedge behind the retaining wall has become smaller with the increase of soil suction and the force on the wall has decreased significantly. The displacement of the wall required to reach the active state has been investigated and shows that with increasing soil suction, the displacement required to reach the active state increases.

Keywords

Unsaturated soil

Earth Pressure

Retaining wall

Matric Suction

Subjects